Athen’s Surprising Street Art Scene

So I arrived late into Athens Saturday night, about 11pm, and “Tubered” to my AirBnB apartment. “Tubered” meaning using the Uber app but riding in a taxi. See many cities around the globe caved into the taxi union’s pressure and don’t allow Ubering they only allow “Tubering” with taxi (new word =Tubering). It DOES make the shitty taxi service better, less chance to sit around waiting, getting “lost” and being ripped off. (Props to all our fellow Entrepreneurs for making traveling in the 21st Century SO MUCH EASIER!! AirBnB, Uber, Expedia, Google Flights, etc. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!) Anyhoo, so after skipping dinner, and finally getting an excellent night’s sleep (check out my previous blog’s as to why), I awoke to a spectacularly gorgeous 1st day in Athens. Time to go out sightseeing! I was having some stomach issues, likely from

the variety of new foods that I’ve been consuming. I eat well, generally really well, (organic when I can, all natural as a steady focus, always reading the labels, etc), so I decided to skip any food for a day or so, just water, coffee and juices. My plan was to swing by a fresh juice spot on the way to the Acropolis, Pure Juice Bar for a day full of walking and juicing, and sightseeing. My Tuber (taxi / uber) driver “Alex” was a local local, and when I mentioned noticing a great mural as we passed, he said “Oh then let me show you some of my favorites.” Little did I know about Athen’s Surprising Street Art Scene.

Look at the amount of amazing street art here just in one half of one corner of one block. I was blown away!

This got OUT OF CONTROL QUICKLY. Remember that I’m on my way in a Tuber to go see the Acropolis and do some “proper” sightseeing. Plus I’m really jonesing for a fresh juice, that whole not eating thingy. But now we cannot even get around the block without me yelling “STOP!” and jumping out, in my excitement, many times a bit before he’s fully stopped or 100% checking for that oncoming vrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Whew that was close! Yes Momma, I’ll be careful!

Now MUCH of the graffiti in Athens is purely terrible, disgusting, stupid vandalism. You punks (who I’m sure are reading this – ha!) need to STOP….take a breath, and do what we did in my beautiful hometown of St. Pete, Florida. See we created SHINE St. Pete Mural Festival, where the business owners, artists and city pulled together to create something extraordinarily wonderful for EVERYONE. The “punks” got mentored for free by the true artists (like Nick Kekllas (Nick!!) BASK, Tes One, Chad Mize, Derek Donnelly, Sebastian Coolidge, Don Kobasky, etc. Well Don didn’t do any tutoring but he’s one of my local favorites, so here’s to you Donny Kingpin!), the artists collaborated with the city and businesses (Thanks John Collins of St. Pete Arts Alliance, you rock!) to pick the walls approved by the business owners, and again everyone came out a winner. Shitty tags and paint skrawl just makes your city look TERRIBLE and drives AWAY tourists, money and a better life for you. Look at the difference! Hello!! Yes there is plenty of frustrations and anger and feelings of hopelessness everywhere, but shitting in your own soup is counter productive. You want your city to SHINE! Be smart and make better choices, live via Continuous Improvement!

I hope you enjoyed my story about Athens Surprising Street Art Scene, as I, Michael S. Novilla, the founder of the Entrepreneur Social Club, travel the world to help, mentor and connect with my fellow Entrepreneurs! It’s up to us, the problem solvers, the inventors, designers and Entrepreneurs to save our world (from ourselves!) Join me online and in person every Thursday night in Downtown St. Pete at my historic wedding and event venue NOVA 535 for our weekly ESC meetings. They are FUN and PRODICTIVE. Of course fellow founding ESCers Nick “I’m You When You Can’t Be” Mazeika and Chris “I’m Their Web Guy” Jenkins handle the physical meetings while I’m skipping around the globe. THANKS and MUCH LOVE to you ALL. And Hello to our favorite ESC bartender Vanessa!

PPS: Feel free to add your PROFILE to our site http://entrepreneursocialclub.com/join just make SURE to add in all your info and good quality headshot photo; don’t be a lazy arse and kinda do it. Like life, Do It RIGHT! =D

PPPS: OK, yes and finally give me a kinda break here as all of these photos are taken on my Galaxy Note 5 from Samsung. Not too bad though, from a smartphone in full Greek sunlight. Word!

Born on April Fools Day in St. Pete, Florida, I’ve always loved learning, exploring, and making things better. Since completing my MBA in 1993, I’ve bought, renovated, and leased over a hundred historic buildings. Along the way, I realized my hometown deserved a unique event space, so I built a world-class venue called NOVA 535, which I’ve run since 2008. In the process, I developed “The NOVA Way”, a system of continuous improvement for business.In 2009, needing the company of like-minded folks, I created the Entrepreneur Social Club, a network of business owners from around the world who meet every Thursday to collaborate, mentor, and share knowledge. Now, traveling around the world (87 countries and counting), I’m using the expertise I’ve gained from throwing over a thousand 5 star weddings, parties, and events to consult with business owners worldwide, showing them how to achieve world-class service and operations in their business. My first book “It’s 5 AM Go Home!” gives step by step guidance on how to throw amazing events and the soon to be launched Customer Service College will provide formal coursework for business owners who want to achieve 5-star service.I’ve discovered we all face the same problems, and that when we work together, we all win. So let’s work together!Michael@MichaelSNovilla.com